Greenpeace welcomes Waiuku wind farm win
Thursday 8 September 2005:
Greenpeace today applauded the Environment Court's decision to allow the Awhitu wind farm, at Waiuku near Auckland to go
ahead.
"This decision is a fantastic signal for wind energy development in New Zealand and is a great step towards reducing our
greenhouse gas emissions and tackling the world's biggest threat – climate change," said Greenpeace climate campaigner
Vanessa Atkinson.
This is a precedent setting case for wind energy in New Zealand. It is the first time that a decision on a wind farm has
been taken to the Environment Court and it sets a positive precedent for balancing sustainable development and the need
to tackle climate change with mitigating local impacts and for allowing appropriate siting of wind farms in coastal
areas.
Greenpeace joined the appeal in support of the wind farm as we were very concerned about climate change. Greenpeace
believes that wind and other forms of renewable energy are very important components to address climate change.
"New Zealand is the Saudi Arabia of wind and a recent Government study showed that 35% of our installed electricity
capacity could come from wind energy, and that is just within current technology limits."
"The transition to renewable energy such as wind, is absolutely vital and Awhitu is an urgently needed step on that
path. With scientists warning that we only have 10 years to tackle climate change to avoid wide-scale ecological,
economic and social disaster, we can no longer afford to wait.
"New Zealand faces some tough energy choices in the coming years. We can move towards clean renewable energy sources
such as wind or we are left with dirty climate-change causing options like Mighty River Power's Marsden B coal-fired
power station," said Ms Atkinson.
"New Zealand should be developing more projects close to areas of high electricity demand like Auckland, to avoid the
need for transmission line upgrades," concluded Ms Atkinson.
The Greenpeace run website, http://www.Yes2Wind.co.nz supports and promotes the use of wind power in New Zealand and
provides information on wind energy including debunking some common myths.
ENDS